MEMOIR OF PLINY. 25 



years of the reign of Vespasian, as we find that his 

 absence abroad obliged him to depute the guardian- 

 ship of his nephew to the care of Virgin ius Rufus. 



On his return to Italy he seems to have made some 

 stay in the south of Gaul ; for he informs us that he 

 saw there a stone said to have fallen from the sky ; 

 and he describes with great exactness the province 

 of Narbonne, particularly the fountain of Vaucluse. 

 At Rome, Vespasian, with whom he had been on 

 intimate terms during the German wars, gave him 

 a very favourable reception, and was in the habit of 

 calling him to his apartment every morning before 

 sunrise, a privilege which, according to Suetonius 

 and Xiphilinus, was reserved only for his particular 

 friends. It is not certain, though probable, that Ves- 

 pasian raised him to the rank of senator ; nor is 

 there any proof that he served with Titus in the 

 war against the Jews. What he remarks concern- 

 ing Judea is not sufficiently exact to induce us to 

 believe that he speaks from personal observation ; 

 and besides, it is hardly possible to assign to any 

 other period of his life than this, the composition of 

 his -work on the " History of his own Times," in 

 thirty-one books, and forming a continuation of that 

 by Aufidius Bassus, an author who flourished under 

 Augustus, and wrote an account of the wars in Ger- 

 many. Whether or not he was the military com- 

 panion of that emperor in the east, he was honoured 

 with his intimate friendship, and to him he dedicated 



